Debbie Alves of Taunton said she has no idea who would have wanted to murder her only brother, 33-year-old Joseph E. Dugan.

“It’s senseless. He comes from a large, loving family with many nieces and nephews,” Alves, 34, said, as she stood on the sidewalk where police found Dugan’s body early Thursday morning.

“Whoever did this hurt a lot of people. Whoever knows who did this should tell them to come forward and turn themselves in,” she said firmly, with tears in her eyes.

Although police have not released details of circumstances surrounding Dugan’s shooting death, Alves said she had been told that he’d been shot one time “right in the head.”

Rebecca Alves, who described herself as Debbie’s half-sister, called Dugan “one of the most likable people you could ever meet.”

“We were really close,” Alves, 34, said.

She said Dugan had been visiting a female friend on Wednesday night, but not someone who was necessarily a girlfriend, who lives in one of the upstairs apartments at 11 Granite St.

The two had known each other for about a year, she said.

Alves said Dugan had been out of work and living with his parents since being laid off two years ago from his job as a rigger and mason for a local company.

“He was a happy-go-lucky kid,” she said.

Michelle Estes says she lives in a rear apartment a 11 Granite St., a split-level multi-family house with six apartments that sits on the east side of the intersection of Granite and Dana streets.

Estes, who said that she and husband have lived in the building for about six months, claims not to have heard either any commotion leading up to the shooting or the fatal gunshot itself.

She did say, however, that her three dogs had been “barking up a storm” starting at about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, after she left her back door ajar to allow air into the apartment.

“Sure I’m concerned,” Estes said when asked about the shooting. “I hope it’s random, but I don’t know.”

What she does know for certain, she said, is that she oftentimes feels unsafe walking anytime after dark in the surrounding area of Dana Street — which borders industrial businesses like Plumbers’ Supply and Enos Metals — and her end of Granite Street.

“There are parts that make the hair on my arm stand on end,” Estes said, adding that it’s difficult enough for her to walk her dogs with all “the dirt bikes that race up and down” Dana Street.

“I feel safe with the dogs — temporarily,” she said.

Ron Sullivan said that he, his wife, their daughter and two granddaughters have lived at 13 Granite St. — in a large, multi-family home located on the opposite side of Dana Street — for about a year.

Page 2 of 2 - He said before he and his family moved to the block he’d heard that the house at 11 Granite St. previously had garnered a bad reputation in terms of criminal activity.

“We checked before we moved in, but supposedly they cleaned it up,” Sullivan, 49, said.

But finding out that someone had been shot dead less than 100 yards from his front door has him concerned.

“It worries me,” he said, adding that his block “is not a good area.”

Sullivan says it’s not uncommon when he gets home from work late at night to see groups of young men “hanging out.”

The shooting, he said, hits a nerve because one of his granddaughters sleeps in a room facing out onto the street.

“I knew it wasn’t a great neighborhood, but this makes me even more uneasy,” Sullivan said.

He did not hear any shots fired Thursday morning, he said.

Gregg Miliote, spokesman for the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office, said Thursday that the DA’s office had a “large contingent of investigators working feverishly” to solve the Dugan shooting case.

“They’ve been working non-stop,” he said.

Miliote said he could not confirm how many times, or where on his body, the victim had been shot. He said an autopsy should be completed no later than Friday morning.

One police source said Dugan was known to police, but only for a handful of motor vehicle violations. He also said there is a distinct chance Dugan might have been a victim of mistaken identity.